ENERGY

Authored by Tsvetana Paraskova via OilPrice.com,

• Rising geopolitical risk means oil traders have been paying premiums for crude cargoes from the Middle East loading next year.

• While geopolitical risk has added a premium in annual deals, front-month oil futures have fallen back to levels last seen before Hamas attacked Israel.

• The Federal Reserve’s decision not to increase interest rates should have provided some support to prices, but WTI and Brent were down on Thursday. (more…)

Authored by Tom Ozimek via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Stephen Moore, senior economist at FreedomWorks and once a senior economic adviser to former President Donald Trump, has issued a grim prediction about America's electric vehicle (EV) market, saying EVs are poised to be automakers' "next big flop."

Electric vehicles are charging at a charging station in Monterey Park, Calif., on April 12, 2023. (Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images)

Mr. Moore's grim prediction for the EV market came in an interview on Fox News's "Varney & Co." program on Oct. 30 and an op-ed in The Daily Caller on Oct. 29, in which the economist compared the current EV push to the failed rollout of the Ford Edsel.

"One of the textbook marketing flops of all time was the Ford Edsel sedan, which was heralded as the hot new car in the late 1950s," he wrote in the op-ed.

At the time of the Edsel launch, automotive experts widely expressed the view that the sedan—named after Henry Ford's son—would be a sure thing. However, instead of sales in the hundreds of thousands, as experts generally predicted at the time, the Edsel sold a paltry 10,000 or so units and was discontinued.

A key factor behind the Edsel's flop is, according to Mr. Moore, that the car was pushed on a public that didn't want it.

"The obvious lesson for the industry: you can’t bribe Americans to buy cars they don’t want. Given the all-in approach mentality for EVs at Ford and GM, it’s clear that Detroit never got this message," he wrote.

A general view of GMC Hummer EVs is pictured at General Motors' Factory ZERO electric vehicle assembly plant in Detroit, Mich., on Nov. 17, 2021. (Nic (more…)

Via The Cradle,

Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei spoke about the Gaza-Israel during a meeting with a group of students at the Imam Khomeini Hussainiyah in Tehran on Wednesday, chastising Gulf Arab states for their complicity in Israeli aggression.  

"What Muslim states must insist on is the immediate cessation of [Israeli] crimes in Gaza. They must promptly stop the bombardment of Gaza and stop the export of oil and other commodities to the Zionist regime," (more…)